Click here to watch a video on the City of Charlotte's FY2012 Corporate Performance Report.In 1995 Charlotte won first prize in the City Livability Awards, being cited for "setting the standard by which to measure good local government."

The City of Charlotte has had a long tradition of performance measurement, having first instituted Management by Objectives in 1972. In 1994, the City began its implementation of the Balanced Scorecard, a performance management model that challenges organizations to evaluate success and achievement across four perspectives: financial, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth.

By 1996, the City of Charlotte had developed its first Balanced Scorecard, the Corporate Scorecard. Since then, the City of Charlotte has been inducted into the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative Hall of Fame and is recognized as the first and longest government user of the Balanced Scorecard model in the world.

The Budget & Evaluation Office is responsible for administering the City's strategic planning process, which includes developing Charlotte 's Corporate Scorecard. The City of Charlotte's performance management and strategic planning approach consists of:

Identifying organizational strategy based on City Council Focus Areas,

Translating and communicating the strategy through the Corporate Scorecard (developing corporate objectives and measures), and

Implementing the strategy as described by the Strategic Focus Area plans and Key Business Unit (KBU) and Support Unit business plans - Strategic Operating Plan (SOP). See the information box to the right for SOP plans.

BenchmarkingThe City of Charlotte participates in an annual performance measurement benchmarking study of select service areas, including residential refuse collection, household recycling, yard waste/leaf collection, emergency communications, fire services, asphalt maintenance and repair, fleet maintenance, human resources, and water services. This study is conducted by the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and includes 17 large and mid-size cities statewide.